But the move is more interesting for another reason entirely. Frank was one of the reporters who wrote a massive November 2000 piece (that?? firewalled) on the past and present roles of Rupert Murdoch?? wife Wendi Deng. Said front-pager, a nearly 4,000 word treatise that covered the personal and business histories of the then-31 year old Deng, had Murdoch fuming.

And Murdoch hasn?? forgotten about it. From a (firewalled) Times piece in May:

[News Corp. spokesman Gary Ginsberg] said the only instance when Mr. Murdoch did have objections [to Journal coverage] involved a 2000 Journal profile of his third wife, Wendi Deng, which delved into her romantic history.

??f it?? a legitimate news story, Rupert would say fine,?Ginsberg said. “But it wasn’t a legitimate news story, in that Wendi had no role in the company at that time. What they were doing was looking for a pretext to write a public story about a private individual.”

I don’t agree with Ginsberg’s reasoning. But, hey, whatever, Rupert’s turning the other cheek! Or at least he’s not walking around the Journal newsroom settling old scores with a portable guillotine.